Venezuela buys more arms from Russia, upsets U.S.

Q: What do you do if you’re the leader of a country seeking to buy arms but one of the world’s biggest arms dealers doesn’t want to sell to you?

A: Simple; look elsewhere for business.

That is precisely what Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez has done with Russia becoming a major supplier of arms and equipment to the South American country instead of the U.S.

The latest development has been the purchase of 98 Ilyushin civilian planes from Russia today according to media reports. Previous Russian arms sales to Venezuela include submarines and Kalashnikov rifles.

U.S. arms dealers have been banned from selling arms to Venezuela despite being allowed to sell to countries with “very poor” human rights records, according to this report. Hence, Pentagon officials have denounced Venezuelan arms purchases:

"It seems as if a build up of this character doesn't really respond to the reality on the ground there," U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Western Hemisphere Affairs Stephen Johnson told reporters during a visit Bogota.

"It has an effect of intimidating neighbors ... and democracies in the region need to be able to respond to this in a way that will help reduce this kind of threat," he said.”

Sources- El Universal, Voice of America, The Latin Americanist, World Security Institute, Reuters

Image- Pravda (Hugo Chavez and Vladimir Putin meeting in 2006)